Denver’s school district has been doing a lot right in the last few years, creating bold plans to overhaul or even close dysfunctional schools and taking the non-negotiable position that all children can learn and improve.

These reforms have been a necessary but painful sea change for Denver, a large and diverse school district that faces challenges of poverty and English proficiency on a scale that puts it in a different league than most other Colorado districts.

That progress — and there has been significant progress despite what critics will say — is at risk.

That’s because the balance of the school board could change in the Nov. 1 elections. There is a one-vote margin on the seven-member board, a slim majority that encourages the direction that Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg has so diligently pursued.

We hope Denver voters will get beyond the rhetoric, look critically at DPS’s plans and support the candidates who have clearly come out in favor of continued reform in Denver.

While the reformers may not have all the answers, and progress isn’t coming as quickly as desired, they are moving in a promising direction. Our hope would be that the new school board will focus less on which side proposes the ideas and more on ideas that work.

At-large: Happy Haynes

Happy Haynes is head and shoulders above other candidates in the race for the at-large seat in terms of experience and educational beliefs.

A Denver native, Haynes served as a City Council member for 13 years, attaining the position of president before working at DPS as a top-level community engagement specialist.

She is a leader who understands in a very nuts-and-bolts way how to reach out to parents and welcome their involvement in their children’s schools.

Haynes supported the controversial — but promising — Far Northeast turnaround plan for the area’s chronically low-performing schools. She is a vigorous proponent of Senate Bill 191, which links teacher tenure to student achievement. And she is dedicated to closing the achievement gap separating poor, ethnic children from their counterparts.

Haynes would be an asset to the school board and we recommend her without reservation.

District 1: Anne Rowe

Few people in Denver have been as involved in education, leadership and community service so consistently, for so many years, as Anne Rowe.

As the mother of three daughters, Rowe has done it all, from helping teachers in the classroom to being a founding co-chair and executive board member of A+ Denver, a non-profit group of community members dedicated to improving DPS student achievement.

Rowe also brings financial acumen to the table, having been a financial analyst for eight years, and a small business owner for 20 years. Those are valuable skills for a school board member, who must deal with complex fiscal matters. And it’s also not all that common to find someone with that skill set willing to serve as an unpaid school board member.

Rowe is a strong supporter of core reforms the district is pursuing, including the Far Northeast plan, tying teacher employment and pay, in part, to educational results, and actively promoting school choice.

Her opponent, Emily Sirota, pales in comparison. Sirota, a congenial person to be sure, moved to Denver in 2007. She has a pretty thin resume in education and despite our best efforts to draw her out, would talk only in generalities about policy positions.

Frankly, we don’t know whether Sirota would support further reforms. Denver cannot afford such ambiguity. We do know, however, that she has the backing of the Denver teachers union’s small donor committee, which has given her $22,500 in cash and a $10,080 in-kind donation in canvassers.

That says quite a bit in and of itself, since the teachers union has expressed trepidation about or outright opposition to many of the reforms positively affecting the district.

Denver voters have a clear and, in our minds, easy choice. We strongly recommend Rowe for the position.

District 5: Jennifer Draper Carson

Four years ago, we supported Arturo Jimenez for this school board seat. What a mistake that was.

Jimenez, who won that election and is the incumbent in this race, has been a disappointment, voting contrary to much of what he led us to believe about him. He has been a steady third vote for the opposition, which includes board members Andrea Merida and Jeanne Kaplan.

Only recently has Jimenez begun casting some votes supportive of, say, West Denver Prep, a highly successful charter school that he previously had roundly criticized.

He is also a union favorite, receiving $24,000 from the Denver Classroom Teachers Association’s small donor committee. The Colorado Education Association’s small donor committee gave him $6,000. No surprises there.

Recently, Latinos for Education Reform, whose members include prominent Latinos from the metro area, strongly opposed Jimenez’s candidacy. Their criticisms that Jimenez voted contrary to the interests of children in his district were strong, valid and cutting.

Draper Carson would be a big upgrade. Though she has only lived in Denver since 2005, she has been an involved voice in education reform. She supports better school options in Northwest Denver, giving charter schools funding equal to other district schools, rewarding or sanctioning schools based on performance and she backed the Far Northeast turnaround plan.

She has firsthand experience in Northwest Denver schools, having been employed at North High School as a public relations liaison and at Academia Ana Marie Sandoval as an aide in a dual-language classroom.

Many were not surprised by the prompt verdict Monday in the sexual-assault case in Denver involving Taylor Swift. A jury of six women and two men concluded within hours that a Denver radio host had groped Swift _ grabbed her butt beneath her skirt during a photo shoot, as his wife stood on the other side of Swift.

Touch not that statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville. Let it stand, but around it place plaques telling the curious that the man was a traitor to his country who went to war so white people could continue to own black people.